The SCV-70 ''White Base'' (ホワイトベース　''Howaito Bēsu''), also nicknamed Trojan Horse (木馬 ''Mokuba''), is a fictional spaceship from the Japanese

science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel unive ...

anime series ''

Mobile Suit Gundam , also known as ''First Gundam'', ''Gundam 0079'' or simply ''Gundam '79'', is an anime television series, produced and animated by Nippon Sunrise. Created and directed by Yoshiyuki Tomino, it premiered in Japan on Nagoya Broadcasting ...

''. It serves as the

mothership A mother ship, mothership or mother-ship is a large vehicle that leads, serves, or carries other smaller vehicles. A mother ship may be a maritime ship, aircraft, or spacecraft. Examples include bombers converted to carry experimental airc ...

of the protagonist Earth Federation crew members and the famous

RX-78-2 Gundam The is a fictional manned robot (mecha), introduced in 1979 in Yoshiyuki Tomino's and Sunrise's anime series ''Mobile Suit Gundam''. In the series, it is a prototype weapon for the Earth Federation when it falls into the hands of Amuro Ray, the ...

mobile suit. Various spin-offs are designed after it, including a whole class of ships called the ''Pegasus-class'' assault carrier, and it has inspired ships in the sequels like the ''Argama-class'' in ''

Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam is a 1985 Japanese television anime series, the second installment in the ''Gundam'' franchise, and a sequel to the original ''Mobile Suit Gundam''. The show was created and directed by Yoshiyuki Tomino, with character designs by Yoshikazu ...

'' and ''Archangel-class'' in ''

Mobile Suit Gundam SEED is an anime series developed by Sunrise and directed by Mitsuo Fukuda. The ninth installment in the ''Gundam'' franchise, ''Gundam SEED'' takes place in a future calendar era, in this case the Cosmic Era. In this era, mankind has devel ...

''. Other non-''Gundam'' spaceships, such as the transformed mode of Fortress Maximus from the ''

Transformers ''Transformers'' is a media franchise produced by American toy company Hasbro and Japanese toy company Takara Tomy. It primarily follows the Autobots and the Decepticons, two alien robot factions at war that can transform into other forms, suc ...

'' series, are possibly also inspired by ''White Bases design.

Development

The ''White Base'' is designed with a three-plane view method by

Kunio Okawara is a mechanical designer in the Japanese anime industry. Okawara was the first in the industry to be specifically credited as a mechanical designer. He designed mecha for the ''Gundam'' and ''Brave Series'' franchises, as well as those of numerou ...

, which originated as a salvaged design from the anime ''

Invincible Steel Man Daitarn 3 , also known as ''The Unchallengeable Daitarn 3'', is a Japanese anime television series created by Yoshiyuki Tomino and Hajime Yatate, and animated by Sunrise. It was first broadcast on Japanese TV in 1978. The series lasted for 40 episodes. T ...

''.''Gundam Century Renewal Version'', Kishosha, 15 March 2000, The idea of having a space carrier from the director

Yoshiyuki Tomino is a Japanese mecha anime creator, animator, director, screenwriter, songwriter and novelist best known for creating the ''Gundam'' anime franchise. He was born in Odawara, Kanagawa Prefecture, and studied at Nihon University's College of Art. ...

was partly inspired by the earlier science fiction anime ''

Space Battleship Yamato is a Japanese science fiction anime series produced and written by Yoshinobu Nishizaki, directed by manga artist Leiji Matsumoto, and produced by Academy Productions. The series aired in Yomiuri TV from October 6, 1974 to March 30, 1975, ...

'', which he claimed to be a fan of. It was intended to be in a more realistic black colour, but was changed to white by the order of

Sunrise Sunrise (or sunup) is the moment when the upper rim of the Sun appears on the horizon in the morning. The term can also refer to the entire process of the solar disk crossing the horizon and its accompanying atmospheric effects. Terminology Al ...

, similar to the colour change of the main mecha Gundam from grey to white, red, blue and yellow. Tomino showed great disgust in the colour change, also noticing the unrealistic non-aerodynamic design of it after the show was on air, said in an interview that such a design would never appear in the real world, since it would be a sitting duck from fighter aircraft. Tomino still held a grudge 10 years after the show aired and stated in an interview in ''

Newtype is a monthly magazine publication originating from Japan, covering anime (and to a lesser extent, tokusatsu, manga, Japanese science fiction, seiyuu, and video games). It was launched by publishing company Kadokawa Shoten on March 8, 1985, with i ...

'' 1989 April issue that the imaginary enemies of Gundam are Sunrise, sponsors and television stations. This ship also appeared in the

Kodansha is a Japanese privately-held publishing company headquartered in Bunkyō, Tokyo. Kodansha is the largest Japanese publishing company, and it produces the manga magazines ''Nakayoshi'', ''Afternoon'', ''Evening'', ''Weekly Shōnen Magazine'' an ...

Pocket Encyclopedia series, listed as spacecraft carrier (Uchuu Kubou, 宇宙空母).講談社ポケット百科シリーズ(1981) The ''Zukai Uchusen'' magazine listed it the 6th most recognisable fictional spaceship (and 3rd in anime) after the

Imperial Star Destroyer Star Destroyers are capital ships in the fictional ''Star Wars'' universe. Star Destroyers were produced by Kuat Drive Yards, later Kuat-Entralla Engineering, and serve as "the Ship of the line, signature vessel of the fleet" for the Galactic Repub ...

Millennium Falcon The ''Millennium Falcon'' is a fictional starship in the ''Star Wars'' franchise. Designed by Joe Johnston for the movie ''Star Wars'' (1977), it has subsequently appeared in '' The Star Wars Holiday Special'' (1978), ''The Empire Strikes Back ...

Enterprise Enterprise (or the archaic spelling Enterprize) may refer to: Business and economics Brands and enterprises * Enterprise GP Holdings, an energy holding company * Enterprise plc, a UK civil engineering and maintenance company * Enterprise ...

SDF-1 Macross is an anime television series from 1982. According to story creator Shoji Kawamori, it depicts "a love triangle against the backdrop of great battles" during the first Human-alien war. It is the first part of two franchises: The ''Super D ...

, and

Yamato was originally the area around today's Sakurai City in Nara Prefecture of Japan, which became Yamato Province and by extension a name for the whole of Japan. Yamato is also the dynastic name of the ruling Imperial House of Japan. Japanese his ...

, and the ship that made the Pegasus-class of ships famous.Zukai Uchusen by Shomyoji Kenso/Morise Ryo, Shinkigensha (2007)

Special onboard systems

As summarised for general readers, Chapter 4 of Zukai Uchusen, which is the chapter dedicated for famous fictional crafts, stated the White Base utilises

Minovsky Physics Universal Century technology refers to technology created in the fictional Universal Century timeline of the ''Gundam'' anime media mix. Although they are only fictional technologies, they form a base that of the Real Robot genre of anime origin ...

to support a semi-antigravity system called ''Minovsky Craft'' to fly in the atmosphere, which it ejects Minovsky particles to create a kind of hovering effect.

Fictional history

At the outbreak of the One Year War, the

Dreadnought The dreadnought (alternatively spelled dreadnaught) was the predominant type of battleship in the early 20th century. The first of the kind, the Royal Navy's , had such an impact when launched in 1906 that similar battleships built after her ...

-oriented Earth Federation was caught completely by surprise when the Principality of Zeon deployed the agile mobile suits against their fleets. The Federation military quickly realised that they would also need mobile suits if they were to have any chance of victory, and instituted the famed Project V in order to develop a mass-production mobile suit design. The Federation also realised that their existing line of space warships — mostly the cannon-heavy ''Magellan-class'' battleships, ''Salamis-class'' cruisers, and the unarmed ''Columbus-class'' transporters — are severely lacking in mobile suit transport and support capacity, and thus desperately in need of designs capable of mobile warfare. A new revolutionary warship class exclusively designed for MS combat and support was born — the ''Pegasus-class'' assault carrier. One of the first ''Pegasus-class'' ships to enter active service was the ''White Base''. Launched in September UC 0079, ''White Base'' was immediately sent to retrieve the Federation's new mobile suit prototypes from Side 7's secret research facility for field testing. In the middle of this mission, she unexpectedly found herself tailed by a Zeon special combat unit led by

Char Aznable , born and also gone by the name , is a fictional character from the ''Gundam'' franchise. He is originally one of the main antagonists in ''Mobile Suit Gundam'' working for the Principality of Zeon, named after his late father Zeon Zum Deikun, ...

. When the Zeon forces launched their surprise attack on the colony, heavy casualties were inflicted among the colony's civilian population and ''White Bases regular personnel. In the middle of the battle, civilian teenager

Amuro Ray is a fictional character introduced in Sunrise's 1979 anime series ''Mobile Suit Gundam''. Amuro is a mechanic who becomes the pilot of the mecha known as RX-78-2 Gundam to protect himself from the Zeon forces invading his space colony during the ...

activated the

unit in sheer desperation and repulsed the Zeon attack, destroying two

Zaku The is a fictional line of manned robots (mecha) from ''Mobile Suit Gundam'', part of the Universal Century fictional universe, where they are the Principality of Zeon's most commonly fielded Mobile Suits. The most widely known model is the M ...

s in the process. The surviving crew and the civilian refugees then boarded ''White Base'' and went on a long journey plagued by Zeon hostilities. ''White Base'' first landed at Luna II, home of the remaining Earth Federation Space Force fleet, where she was promptly seized by the base commander, who proceeded to interrogate the crew, militia and civilian survivors on board. In the middle of this interrogation, Char, searching for ''White Base'', led an infiltration attack on Luna II by mining the port entrance. ''White Base'' managed to escape from Luna II, and sailed next for Earth under the command of a hastily promoted young captain named Bright Noa. Upon making contact with the Federation forces under the command of General Johann Abraham Revil, ''White Base'' was forced to push west through Zeon-controlled territory in

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...

and was drawn into a battle in the ruins of

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...

, where she shot down a Zeon ''Gaw-class'' carrier containing Zeon prince Garma Zabi (who was manoeuvred into an ambush by Char). ''White Base'' then crossed the

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the continen ...

to rendezvous with Revil's forces that were assembling for a major operation in

Eastern Europe Eastern Europe is a subregion of the Europe, European continent. As a largely ambiguous term, it has a wide range of geopolitical, geographical, ethnic, cultural, and socio-economic connotations. The vast majority of the region is covered by Russ ...

. Along the trek through

Central Asia Central Asia, also known as Middle Asia, is a subregion, region of Asia that stretches from the Caspian Sea in the west to western China and Mongolia in the east, and from Afghanistan and Iran in the south to Russia in the north. It includes t ...

, she was hunted by another Zeon special forces unit under the command of Ramba Ral. Eventually regrouping with the Federation forces, ''White Base'' participated in Operation Odessa, the bloodiest Earth battle of the entire One Year War, helping to obliterate the main foothold of the Zeon invasion forces on Earth. She then restocked and refueled in

Belfast Belfast ( , ; from ga, Béal Feirste , meaning 'mouth of the sand-bank ford') is the capital and largest city of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan on the east coast. It is the 12th-largest city in the United Kingdo ...

before traveling across the

Atlantic Ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe ...

. After the long route around the world, ''White Base'' finally arrived and docked at Jaburo, the Federation's main base and mobile suit manufacturing facility located underground in

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the southe ...

. Unfortunately, they ended up leading Char's ''Mad Angler'' unit to Jaburo, at which point he attempted an infiltration, which was repelled. Following the failed Zeon raid on Jaburo, ''White Base'' was re-designated the 13th Autonomous Mobile Squadron, and re-launched into space to Side 6 in a diversionary move aimed at drawing off Zeon forces from Solomon. This mission would solidify her fame as Zeon's worst nightmare, as this single ship managed to surprise everyone by repeatedly knocking out heavyweight Zeon fleet commanders. Additionally, the unrivaled performance of Amuro Ray (including the widely televised Side 6 battle where he single-handedly shot down 9 Rick Doms within merely 3 minutes) earned the ship crew the nickname "Newtype Corps". With much of Zeon's attention being fixed on hunting down the "

Trojan Horse The Trojan Horse was a wooden horse said to have been used by the Greeks during the Trojan War to enter the city of Troy and win the war. The Trojan Horse is not mentioned in Homer's ''Iliad'', with the poem ending before the war is concluded, ...

", the Federation gained crucial strategic time to complete the deployment of its new Vinson Plan space armada, together with their new mass-produced RGM-79 GM. After destroying the Conscon Fleet, ''White Base'' rendezvoused with the remaining ships in the Earth Federation Space Force, and participated in the Battles of Solomon and A Baoa Qu. During the

pitched battle A pitched battle or set-piece battle is a battle in which opposing forces each anticipate the setting of the battle, and each chooses to commit to it. Either side may have the option to disengage before the battle starts or shortly thereafter. A ...

at A Baoa Qu, the Zeon supreme leader Gihren Zabi unleashed the Solar Ray, a gigantic colony laser

superweapon A weapon of mass destruction (WMD) is a chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, or any other weapon that can kill and bring significant harm to numerous individuals or cause great damage to artificial structures (e.g., buildings), natura ...

, which wiped out a third of the Federation fleet and killed General Revil. ''White Base'' became a rally point for the surviving ships from Revil's fleet, and spearheaded the assault against A Baoa Qu's 5 defensive lines. During the battle, she sustained critical damage and was forced to crash-land into a space port of the asteroid stronghold, and immediately became a hotspot for hostile assaults. The grounded ''White Base'' was eventually destroyed from intense enemy attacks, although her entire surviving crew evacuated in time.

References

External links

MAHQ
{{Gundam Gundam anime and manga Fictional spacecraft

Development

Special onboard systems

Fictional history

See also

References

Further reading

External links